Sunday Times 2
Towards a free and fair election with a raging pandemic
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was firmly placed in his presidential seat after comfortably winning the presidential election, much before the arrival of the Covid virus. He needs a parliament with two thirds of its membership as a cheering squad to enable him to rule according to his mandate. And he wants it soon.
Long winding queues outside supermarkets: Many people many returned home exhausted and empty handed
Would the Covid virus epidemic provide him an easier opportunity to procure a two-thirds majority at the parliamentary elections for him to achieve his vistas of political vision declared in his mandate?
Rajapaksa is in a hurry to hold the parliamentary election that was scheduled for April 25 but Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya has announced that the elections cannot be held as scheduled on April 25 because of the spreading virus and it will have to be postponed and an alternative date decided on depending on how quickly the Covid virus can be effectively tackled.
But President Rajapaksa addressing the SAARC leaders’ Video Conference declared that elections would be held as scheduled—April 25
Would a parliamentary election held with the Covid virus imposing many restrictions place the Pohottuwa party with President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at the helm at an advantage over the present seemingly disorganised Opposition? Most political observers believe that such an election with the virus on would be an advantage to the party of the Rajapaksas.
Who has the final say in determining the day of elections, according to the constitution? The President or the Election Commission which conducts the election or will they be able to agree on a date? If not will it be left to the Supreme Court to make a decision?
The rationale for holding the parliamentary election or not with the virus raging is starkly clear: Whereas the free movement of people even to purchase their essential medicines and their daily necessities including food is not possible because of the dread of the spreading of the Covid virus going out of control and they are compelled by law to remain indoors, can a free and fair election involving the free movement of the people endangering their lives be held?
In a lighter vein: Will international observers donning virus protection suits observe the casting of ballots keeping distances much greater than ‘social distances’, declare as usual that it was ‘free and fair election’?
While bemedaled military and police officers and erudite looking doctors on TV keep thumping one another on their backs on how well they have done to control the disease, the people have been bearing with great fortitude the enforced lockdown because of the sheer necessity to do so. When the curfew was lifted after days of being locked down, the people in Colombo and suburbs burst out on to the streets not because of the love for open spaces but to purchase bare essentials for survival. It was an absolute farce because the queues were so long on that sultry and scorching day that standing in the hot sun for hours was impossible and very many returned home exhausted and empty handed. But many could have been carrying the virus back home, mixing up with multitudes at markets and other places unable to keep the prescribed ‘social distance’.
Those at heads of queues managed to purchase the essentials but not the great majority trailing behind. People disbelieved the assurances given by officials on TV about there being no shortages of food and bought as much as they could.
After the monumental blunder, on March 26 a Presidential Task Force headed by Basil Rajapaksa to combat Covid-19 was announced. Basil Rajapaksa is reputed for winning elections for the Rajapaksa party although not the vital 2015 presidential election. The public will depend heavily on how he provides bare essentials for locked up citizens continuously.
He should also realise that man can’t live on bread and rice alone. An octogenarian tells me that he needs his evening ‘government approved walk’ and his regular can of beer. That he says is his fundamental right in his last days. Total prohibition has been enforced in the country since lockdowns began, he claims and points out that such prolonged enforcement results in homemade brews — not news in Sri Lanka.
Of course, pious religionists, moralists and prohibitionists will be delighted at the status quo . As Bertrand Russell the great British philosopher noted: The infliction of cruelty with delight is a joy to all moralists; that’s why they invented hell.
Harmless joys enjoyed by the people are being axed by these moral spoil sports and now by health faddists. Sugar is being taken out of sweetened drinks. May be ice cream will soon be banned. It’s bad for the kids. There is too much sugar. Poor kids.
Grabbing opportunities sent from space and those generated on earth
‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves, for we are underlings’ — William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar.
The Covid 19 virus arrived in a meteorite from outer space that burst over China and spread itself across planet earth—Chandra Wickremasinghe, Sri Lankan born British mathematician, astronomer and Cambridge University scientist who has been accorded the highest qualification from Cambridge—DSc.
These thoughts came to our mind while pondering about the Covid-19 lockdown at home imposed on us for a seemingly infinite period while being condemned to watch some star performers on the idiot screen telling us 24×7 on potential dangers of the virus and how to avoid it lest we pass away from this locked up paradise of ours.
Sri Lankan pundits may not agree with the Shakespearian contention that ‘the fault is not in the stars but ourselves’ or Wickremasinghe’s theory that the virus came from outer space. Mot of our ‘scientists’ are firm believers of astrologers and Wickremasinghe’s postulates are totally foreign to our indigenous culture.
But world history shows that he who grabs the opportunities that comes from space and beyond or from squabble generated by mother nature itself wins. Take Brutus—Marcus Junius Brutus himself. Julius Caesar considered Brutus a dear friend having saved Brutus from certain execution for joining Caesar’s rivals in a revolt against him. Brutus was Caesar’s trusted associate. But when the political tide began rising against Caesar, Brutus took the chance, led the assassination plot to slay the mighty Caesar and grab power. But it was not an easy task because Caesar loyalists like Mark Anthony warred against Brutus and his fellow conspirators and finally defeated Brutus, the much celebrated traitor in history, at Philllipi with Brutus ending it all by falling on his sword.
All that is Roman history learnt at school but it is repeated in our own history, many a time such as in Sigiriya, the main principle being: Grab power when it comes and run, come what may, if you want to get to the top.
The global pandemic has provided such an opportunity to rulers of many regimes, shaky or stable to consolidate themselves or shake out the weaklings clinging on to power. Donald Trump, who is facing a re-election this November is trying to play baseball with the Corona virus. His master strategy is to keep himself in public focus 24×7. When the virus was far away from America, it was ‘just a flu… its going to go away by April as it gets a little warmer’.
Meanwhile, scientists and leading medical specialists were screaming at his nonchalance, but Trump retained his captive audience. As the threat loomed, he talked himself into the position of a wartime leader: He said: “I view it in a sense of a war- time president. He sounded alarm citing thousands of Americans being struck down by the virus and hundreds dying. Last week he somersaulted : He wants to pull back on the restrictions placed on travel, social contact etc and re-open places of work because of the collapsing economy saying that ‘the cure is worse than the problem’.
Is this another stunt giving another line to enthuse his cheering squads or to only to go back to strategies successfully pursued by China and South Korea? It is anybody’s guess?
(Gamini Weerakoon was a former
editor of The Sunday Island, The Island and Consulting Editor of the Sunday Leader)